This 9/11 Republicans helped pass Barack Obama’s pro-Iran anti-Israel, anti-Christian, anti-freedom, anti-American treacheries while pretending to be opposed to those policies. It was the Republican leadership that passed Barack Obama’s low wage society ObamaTrade treacheries too. Public words in opposition to Barack Obama, while helping Obama, is as we wrote, the GOP’s greatest lie:

Opposition to Obama? That is the GOP’s greatest lie.

In 2008 John McCain fluffed Obama’s pillows so that Big Media would not call the former POW a racist. In 2012 Mitt Romney played dog-on-the-roof for Obama. Romney praised Obama as a nice guy while Barack Obama smeared him with mud from the Chicago stockyards. Instead of someone who would attack Obama with verve, Romney chose pretty blue eyes Paul Ryan. Now Paul Ryan is at it again.

Paul Ryan is doing everything he can to help Barack Obama.

John McCain and Mitt Romney as presidential candidates said Barack Obama was “nice” even as Obama trashed them. This praise of Obama continues even though Obama calls Republicans in opposition to his policies “terrorists”.

In Age of Fake “denunciations” of Barack Obama the Republican establishment issues bland statements of disappointment even as Obama trashes the Constitution and race-baits for political profit. But for Donald Trump all the Republican establishment expresses is nasty evil bile.

Loser Rick Perry was forced to quit today because his views are opposed to the views of the voters. Rick Perry is for illegal immigration amnesty as are almost all, if not all, the Republican candidates except Donald Trump.

The White House has been occupied by giants. But from time to time it is sought by the small-minded – divisive figures propelled by anger, and appealing to the worst instincts in the human condition.

In times of trouble, there are two types of leaders: repairers of the breach and sowers of discord.

The sower of discord foments agitation, thrives on division, scapegoats certain elements of society, and offers empty platitudes and promises. He is without substance when one scratches below the surface.

He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued.

Let no one be mistaken – Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.

But, it is now time for us to do what Donald would do, and say the thing that everyone is thinking, but is afraid to say out loud. So I’m going to do it.

The Donald Trump Act is great, and the idea of Donald Trump is great — BUT the reality of Donald Trump is absurd, he’s a non-serious carnival act. [snip]

Donald Trump is shallow. Has no understanding of policy. He’s full of bluster but has no substance. He lacks the intellectual curiosity to even learn.

It’s silly to argue policy with this guy, he’s doesn’t know anything about it, he has no idea what he is talking about, he makes it all up on the fly. [snip]

Donald Trump is for Donald Trump. He believes in nothing other than himself. [snip]

Donald Trump is a narcissist and an egomaniac. [snip]

Like all narcissists, Donald Trump is insecure and weak, and afraid of being exposed. [snip]

Donald Trump is not a serious person. It’s all a solo act, it’s all just a show, and the joke is on us. [snip]

You may have recently seen that after Trump said the Bible is his favorite book, he couldn’t name a single Bible verse or passage that meant something to him. And we all know why, because it’s all just a show, and he hasn’t ever read the Bible. But you know why he hasn’t read the Bible? Because he’s not in it. [snip]

The whole thing is set up for us to win – and yet we are flirting with nominating a non-serious, unstable, substance-free narcissist. [snip]

We can win right now, or we can be the biggest fools of all time and put our faith not in our principles, but in one egomaniacal madman who has no principles.

That describes Barack Obama well, but Bobby Jindal does not use those words to oppose treacherous Obama. No, like a good establishment Republican Bobby Jindal attacks Donald Trump while doing and saying little of consequence to oppose Barack Obama.

The latest pawn in the attack Trump ploy is none other than Dr. Ben Carson. Like Perry, Jindal, Graham, and the rest, Carson is but a pawn used by the GOP establishment to attack Trump in order to benefit JeBush. Pat Buchanan describes the chess play:

Buchanan: Hit Squad Targets Trump
Establishment hopes outsiders will bloody each other and open a lane for Jeb

Former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan said Friday the Republican establishment is hoping that retired neurosurgeon Carson will come to its rescue and open “the door for Jeb and Rubio” by taking out Donald Trump.

“That’s why you’ll see a promotion of a Carson-Trump fight,” said Buchanan, who appeared on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” “This is a contract hit, an assigned hit, almost.” [snip]

Buchanan said the same dynamic as the pumped-up Carson-Trump fight was at work when Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, mired near the bottom of the polls in the GOP race, attacked Trump on Thursday as “shallow,” “narcissistic” and lacking substance. [snip]

“The neo-cons, the National Review folks, are terrified of the idea of Trump, who they don’t have any hooks in whatsoever, winning this nomination.”

The next pawn called to duty will be Fiorina at the debate or maybe even John Kasich. Fiorina will get her face time at the CNN debate but not much else. Fake outrage by her fans and Big Media Trump haters can only get you so far.

As to Kasich, he will sink soon as well, especially since his current low standing is due only to millions of dollars spent in advertising to bolster him. But, as JeBush has discovered, millions of dollars can only keep your nose above water for so long, then you will sink. Soon the pawns will all lay dead on the chess table and only the despised and deposed JeBush will remain to Stop Trump.

The Republican nomination will go either to JeBush or Donald Trump. There is no other. The Republican nomination fight has been fixed. The nomination was fixed for JeBush. But now Trump threatens that fixed phony wrestling match and he is the only one that can beat Bush.

All the Republican establishment wants is to get somebody to get rid of Donald J. Trump so that JeBush can get nominated. The Republican establishment understands that JeBush is not up to the job of taking out Trump, so the pawns – Carson, Fiorina- are called upon to do the job that the other pawns – Graham, Walker, Perry, Jindal, Christie, Pataki, etc. – failed to accomplish.

There are no more tickets available for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s rally in Dallas on Monday, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The American Airlines Center, the event’s venue, has a capacity of about 20,000.

The arena also plays host to the Dallas Mavericks, a basketball team owned by Mark Cuban, who has spoken in support of Trump.

Cuban said he had no doubt Trump would “kill it” at the Dallas rally, saying “there is nothing more Texan than being confident and entrepreneurial.”

The tech billionaire has also said he would consider being Trump’s vice president if asked.

We don’t know whether it was his loser lack of invitation to next week’s debate or the idea of Trump’s big rally in Dallas, Texas that prompted Rick Perry to abandoned his silly quest. Whatever the reason Rick Perry now has the time to attend the Trump rally.

It is to be hoped that Rick Perry will invite Mitt Romney, John McCain, and the other losers (Fiorina, Carson, etc.) to Trump’s rally on Monday. Maybe then the GOP losers will denounce Barack Obama with the same vehemence with which they denounce Trump.

(Reuters) – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is gaining fast on front-runner Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race and has moved within single digits of her for the first time, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll showed on Friday.

Clinton leads Sanders nationally among Democrats by eight percentage points, 39 percent to 31 percent, her smallest cushion since the nominating battle began for the November 2016 election. She led Sanders by 20 percentage points in the online poll a week ago.

Clinton’s support among Democrats has steadily eroded for weeks amid questions about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Her support was at 45 percent one week ago. [snip]

Sanders has galvanized the party’s left-leaning activists and primary voters and taken advantage of what other polls show are Clinton’s declining ratings on honesty and trustworthiness to surge into contention. He was at 25 percent support in the rolling, five-day Reuters/Ipsos poll a week ago.

Other public opinion polls show Sanders moving into the lead or tied with Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that kick off the nominating contest.

In more ways than one we have been right: It’s time for a change, not stay the course. Will Hillary2016 learn?

I saw my second Bernie Sanders for President bumper sticker today. First was on the car of a couple – looked about 65 – and I am sure they were still hippies. The other one, I saw today. The car of a 20-something with all types of Namaste, peace signs, co-exist etc. stickers on it too.

Slogan: we can ill afford to trust the future of the republic to the political class.

This can be seen by the fact that Trump is as popular with the country as he is unpopular with the denizens of the political class.
———
No tickets left for president contender Donald Trump’s mega-rally at American Airlines Center

Dallas Morning News 9/11/15

Still have doubts about Donald Trump’s appeal?

Why Rick Perry never recovered from “Oops” yet Donald Trump can spout anything
Well, there are no tickets left for the Republican presidential front-runner’s rally at the American Airlines Center. So it’s certain that thousands of North Texans will jam into the place to hear Trump’s stump speech. The AAC holds about 20,000, but it’s unclear if that number of tickets were distributed.

Last week Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Wade Emmert predicted the Sept. 14 rally would be a must-see event for many Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

“He has struck a nerve with people tired of the Washington political elite. And because of his popularity and celebrity, people want to go see him in person,” Emmert said. “Combine those two things and he is certainly a political force.”

Still want to go? Those free tickets are now being sold on eBay.

No word yet if Trump is doing anything else in North Texas Monday. The rally begins at 6 p.m., and his advance team will be in Dallas this weekend.

MORE DONALD TRUMP

Former Cowboys RB Herschel Walker supports Donald Trump for president: ‘No matter what he is a good man’

Getty Images
Donald Trump has bought out NBC’s half of the Miss Universe Organization, the group that puts on the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants, bringing an end to his months-long feud with the network.

“Just purchased NBC’s half of the Miss Universe Organization and settled all lawsuits against them,” Trump said on Twitter on Friday. “Now own 100% — stay tuned!”

An NBC spokesperson confirmed the transaction, according to CNN Money.

NBC severed all ties with Trump in June, canceling the pageants in the process, after the real estate mogul made controversial comments about illegal immigrants at his presidential campaign launch.

Trump responded by suing the network for a breach in contract.

Trump hosted “The Apprentice” and its spinoffs on NBC for over a decade.

I support Trump for the same reason I will buy a lottery ticket. It gives me a chance for a better life. With the political class in charge, it is 100% certain that my life will get worse–so that their lives can get even better. I believe that now, firmly. And I gather that others are catching on. The political class has fucked the pooch for too long and now the pooch is about to fuck them.

I will bet you Donald bought NBCs half of the Miss Universe pageant for next to nothing. Just remember he filed a half a billion lawsuit against them for canceling the pageant over his opposition to illegal immigration. He had a winning case. Rather than losing in court, and being forced to publicly grovel, they surrendered their interest in the pageant in tribute, and he now owns the entire pageant. In war, this is called a total victory.

Earlier this year, Congress passed a law stating that it would not vote on the Iran deal until it had all the relevant documents in front of it–so that, unlike the big pharma drafted Obamacare, and the Goldman Sacks drafted Dodd Frank Bill, congress would know what they are voting on and what they are committing the American People to in perpetuity. Fuck face in the White House signed the bill.

Obama is attempting to force a vote on the Iran deal, and Harry Reid is telling democracts he does not care what it is in it, just as long as he knows Cheney is against it. (I wish whoever smacked him in the face would do the country a service and finish the job). IF the corrupt leadership of the Republican party, who control what bills go to the floor and are voted on simply follows the law and insists on seeing the entire agreement, then Obama will attempt to move forward without congressional authority and an injunction from the DC Circuit should issue, and if it does not, then it will be up to that trembling tower of tapioca Roberts to stand his ground for once.

The reason this is important is because the core of then enforcement mechanism is not contained in the Iranian deal itself which is public information, but rather it is contained in two secret side letters between Iran and the United Nations, which leave enforcement in the hands of the Iranians themselves. THAT IS WHAT LAWYERS CALL AN “ILLUSORY BARGAIN”, in exchange for which Iran gets $150 billion in foreign aid. Cruz would also hold the bank presidents personally liable if they release those funds.

In other words, rather than voting against the treaty, which is meaningless with the way Corker has gutted the Constitution, the Republican leadership should refuse to vote at all. The problem is that leadership is already committed to failure theater, so the votes will go on. Yes, same game as before, only this time, McConnell and Boehner are fooling no one. Sell-out artists, as Morris calls them.

I believe Obama and his minions have orchestrated this entire run Joe thing with Biden’s explicit consent and I would be surprised if he does not run with Chief Warren. Hillary will lose if she does not get it together fast. As someone said on the news, she needs to fire her staff and put Bill in charge.

Hillary will never ever be allowed to be tough as Trump. The media damns her if she doesn’t and will damn her if she does. They have worked like the dickens all spring and summer to drag her down and now that they have succeeded they surely are not going to allow all that time and money they have invested in killing her go to waste plus they need to please their Messiah Obama. Reason enough for Trump to collapse the media house of cards and show them for what they are. We can only hope.

As for Trump and the supposedly mean stuff he said about poor wittle Carly’s looks and how awful it is since we’ve supposedly not seen personal attacks like this before…oh really? Although not a fan of Al Gore, I well remember all the horrible stuff said about him in 2000…questioning his manhood, criticizing the color of his suit and how it made him look, saying he was not good enough to clean the bathtub ring or some such and on and on. And then there is all the horrible PERSONAL things said about the way Hillary looks, talks, etc and calling Chelsea an ugly dog in her teen years, etc.

As for Ms. Carly, there is a video of her waiting to go on camera when she was running against Barbara Boxer and she didn’t know she was being videoed. She said something like …. and what’s with Barbara Boxer’s hairdo. It is SO-O-O yesterday. She looked and sounded like an elite, snobbish, mean girl bitch.

Now we are seeing the pious, rise above it Carly. Dear Carly has slung her own mud at opponents personal appearance but that video is not being shown on TV.
So if she can sling it she should have to take it as well. Therefore I say again, if John Kerry and Carly had a son, they’d have to for sure name him Mr. Ed.

Whatever the reason Rick Perry now has the time to attend the Trump rally.

My favorite type of humor – the type I don’t see coming! I about fell off my chair! lol

The White House has been occupied by giants. But from time to time it is sought by the small-minded – divisive figures propelled by anger, and appealing to the worst instincts in the human condition.
In times of trouble, there are two types of leaders: repairers of the breach and sowers of discord.
The sower of discord foments agitation, thrives on division, scapegoats certain elements of society, and offers empty platitudes and promises. He is without substance when one scratches below the surface.

Can he really have no clue that he is talking about Obama but referring to Trump? Did someone write these words for him to read? Seriously, if he is this stupid, he should not only drop out of the race, but resign from congress.

You may have recently seen that after Trump said the Bible is his favorite book, he couldn’t name a single Bible verse or passage that meant something to him. And we all know why, because it’s all just a show, and he hasn’t ever read the Bible. But you know why he hasn’t read the Bible? Because he’s not in it.

The whole thing is set up for us to win – and yet we are flirting with nominating a non-serious, unstable, substance-free narcissist.

We can win right now, or we can be the biggest fools of all time and put our faith not in our principles, but in one egomaniacal madman who has no principles.

First of all, he seems totally oblivious to the fact that he is describing Obama.
Second of all, what in the world could Jindal know about Trump’s principles? Jindal starts this asserting that Trump knows nothing about the bible and is just faking it – well that exactly what Jindal is doing with his assessment of Trump – he’s just making it up.

I saw my second Bernie Sanders for President bumper sticker today. First was on the car of a couple – looked about 65 – and I am sure they were still hippies. The other one, I saw today. The car of a 20-something with all types of Namaste, peace signs, co-exist etc. stickers on it too.
Birds of a feather – 45 years apart.

I’ve been seeing peace sign bumper stickers and those coexist stickers lately. Every time I do, I immediately think of ISIS, and how they would fare with their earnest pleas for everyone to get along – before ISIS killed them. I’m starting to feel like it’s not just innocence (and ignorance), but a form of willful denial.

Donald Trump has bought out NBC’s half of the Miss Universe Organization, the group that puts on the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants, bringing an end to his months-long feud with the network.

He said about a month ago that he was working on a deal that had something to do with television – I’ll bet it’s this. And wbboei is probably right on how it went down.

We Can Still Stop the Iran Deal—Here’s How
By SEN. TED CRUZ 09/10/15, 03:39 PM EDT

The specter of a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic of Iran is the single greatest threat facing our nation, and if President Barack Obama’s catastrophic nuclear deal with the mullahs goes forward, there will be nothing to stop them from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Astonishingly, we do not even know how bad the deal is because the Administration has not released all of the information relating to side deals with Iran as they are obligated to do under the terms of Corker-Cardin, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act that Congress passed and the President signed into law.

Today I sent Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner a letter that lays out the legal authority they possess as leaders in both Houses of Congress to actually stop this deal.

If we believe what we say about this deal—that it is a profound threat to our national security, to the survival of our friend and ally the nation of Israel and potentially to the lives of millions of Americans—then we should act like it. No show votes that are destined to lose; instead, the leadership should exercise their legal authority to actually prevent more than $100 billion from going to the Ayatollah Khamenei.

The approach I recommend entails a three-step process, and McConnell and Boehner should seize this opportunity to demonstrate leadership and make it happen.

First, both leaders should formally declare that President Obama has not submitted the agreement to Congress as required by Corker-Cardin. The terms of Corker-Cardin are clear: The president may not suspend any sanctions against Iran until he submits the entire agreement to Congress and gives Congress an opportunity to review it. The president has failed to submit widely reported but undisclosed side deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency that bear directly on the inspections regime at issue in the Iran agreement. Therefore, the president has not submitted a complete agreement as Corker-Cardin requires, and the 60-day clock for congressional review did not begin to run. As a result, critically, federal law prohibits the Obama administration from lifting sanctions under the agreement.

Second, Leader McConnell should schedule a vote on a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that, if the agreement had been introduced as a treaty, it would not be ratified. This will put senators on record and will make clear that there is insufficient support in the Senate for approving the agreement as a treaty.

Third, given President Obama’s regrettable history of lawlessness, it is reasonable to assume that he will simply ignore the law and declare that he is lifting sanctions under the agreement anyway. On that assumption, we should make clear to the CEOs of banks holding frozen Iranian funds that their misplaced reliance on the president’s lawlessness would not necessarily excuse them from the obligation to comply with existing federal sanctions laws. And if they release billions in funds to Khamenei, they risk billions in civil (and possibly even criminal) liability once President Obama leaves office. Having spent years advising major corporations in private practice, I can say that their general counsels will likely tell them their legal exposure is real, which could well result in the banks deciding not to release the funds to Iran, despite the president’s actions.

This three-pronged approach is the only course we can take to actually stop the release of more than $100 billion to the regime in Tehran, which is the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism and which will use these funds to attack America and our allies.

And to reiterate, it is possible to stop the president because federal law—the explicit terms of Corker-Cardin—says so.

The legal authorities are straightforward. Corker-Cardin says that the president “shall transmit” the agreement to Congress. That starts a period of congressional review. Importantly, however, Corker-Cardin expressly states that “prior to” the transmission of the agreement and “during the period for congressional review,” the president “may not waive, suspend, reduce, provide relief from, or otherwise limit the application of statutory sanctions with respect to Iran.”

The problem for the president is that he never submitted the agreement as that term is defined in Corker-Cardin. Under Corker-Cardin, the agreement that must be submitted to Congress expressly must include any “related” materials, including “side agreements,” and any “related agreements.” But we now know—by sheer fortuity no less—that the president did not submit at least two side agreements. Congress obviously cannot do its job of reviewing the President’s agreement without all of the relevant materials. Therefore, because the president has not transmitted the agreement as defined by Corker-Cardin, under federal law he “may not” suspend any sanctions.

All of this is entirely within the authority of Leader McConnell and Speaker Boehner. It is no secret that they and I have not always agreed (to put it mildly), but this is an opportunity for them to show bold leadership. And I will readily sing their praises; as I told the Capitol rally yesterday, with regards to leadership, if they will only do the right thing, “I come not to bury Caesar, but to praise him.”

I therefore urge McConnell and Boehner to rigorously enforce federal law and declare that the president has failed to submit the agreement to Congress. Accordingly, under binding statute, the frozen funds cannot be released to the Ayatollah Khamenei, a theocratic zealot who pledges “death to America.”

I will bet you Donald bought NBCs half of the Miss Universe pageant for next to nothing. Just remember he filed a half a billion lawsuit against them for canceling the pageant over his opposition to illegal immigration. He had a winning case. Rather than losing in court, and being forced to publicly grovel, they surrendered their interest in the pageant in tribute, and he now owns the entire pageant. In war, this is called a total victory.

He sued Univision, not NBC. There was no record of any suit against NBC. NBC said a couple weeks ago that they were just going to walk away from the Trump partnership and wipe their hands of the pageant business. I don’t think any money changed hands. NBC said “you can have it”. He gets NBC’s share of a pageant that is worthless without a TV deal and NBC gets out of any future agreements to broadcast it. As usual Trump’s version is uniquely his own.

The Republican establishment sees their very existence threatened by Donald J. Trump. That’s why the Republican establishment is so angry and will say things about Trump they have never said about Barack H. Obama.

It’s 2008 part duex…

The Dimocrat establishment sees their very existence threatened by Hillary R. Clinton. That’s why the DumbDims establishment was so angry and would say things about Hillary they would never have said about Barack H. Obama.

Then it’s 2016

And the Dims are still terrified that Hillary will delete the Kook left and bring back the bluedog Democrats and support voters other than the minorities.

Trump is being ‘Clintoned’ by his own party for the same reasons 2008 destroyed the Democratic party.

Wait until the media really unleashes on Trump and start investigating his business dealings. You can guarantee they will find something to batter him with and it is coming.

And as for Sanders, he will hit his plateau shortly, Iowa and NH are not representative of the country, when it moves on to SC (Where Hillary is still polling with a 40+ lead), Nevada, (still way ahead). Can you see Sanders win California….if Obama couldn’t,he won’t. The south will lock for Clinton again. Florida yesterday had a poll with Clinton with a 40+ lead again.

The lefty lovey echo chamber may have worked for Obama, it wont work so well for a crusty old white socialist man like Sanders, there is nothing in it for them. Sanders still has a difficulty of making the ballot in every state

Besides, people are not yet paying attention as much as they will come January but Sanders has not had that much investigation into him,its fine running for a tiny little state that gets no press….wait until that national media spotlight gets hot, he wont get the benefit of a cosy media like Obama did, he ain’t a protected minority. Dig up enough dirt and there will be dirt, he’ll fall apart.

Also Sanders has still not resolved his ballot problems, he is still registered as independent and not as a Democrat and NH has strict ballot access laws.
In Sanders’ 2006 and 2012 elections to the U.S. Senate, he consented to run in the Democratic primary. After getting the most votes in that contest, Sanders then rejected the nomination and ran as an independent in the general election. Er, Hello?

To be honest we need rid of this Iowa and NH first, they are not representative of the nation.

Reality has bitten Republicans in the backsides again as the Justice Department is saying that Hillary Clinton’s emails broke no laws.

Justice Department lawyers argued before a federal court that Hillary Clinton’s handling of her emails broke no laws.

The Washington Times reported:

In the most complete legal defense of Mrs. Clinton, Justice Department lawyers insisted they not only have no obligation, but no power, to go back and demand the former top diplomat turn over any documents she hasn’t already given — and neither, they said, can the court order that.

The defense came as part of a legal filing telling a judge why the administration shouldn’t be required to order Mrs. Clinton and her top aides to preserve all of their emails.

“There is no question that Secretary Clinton had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision — she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server,” the administration lawyers argued. “Under policies issued by both the National Archives and Records Administration (‘NARA’) and the State Department, individual officers and employees are permitted and expected to exercise judgment to determine what constitutes a federal record.”

Republicans like Donald Trump love to compare Hillary Clinton’s emails to the crimes that were committed by David Petraeus, but the difference is that Petraeus broke the law by giving classified materials to his mistress.

The Republican email scandal is falling apart. If Clinton didn’t break any laws, why are Republicans wasting time and millions of taxpayer dollars investigating her emails? There is a reason Republicans would not allow Clinton’s aides to testify in public. Information is the enemy of the GOP’s bogus email scandal. The more information that is available to the public, the sooner the email scandal will fade away.

The email scandal is a media fueled time killer that only serves to distract attention from the real issues. Republicans don’t want to talk about their positions on the issues. They would rather try to distract the electorate with meaningless scandals.

Republicans can’t hide from the truth. There is nothing to the Hillary Clinton email scandal.

Justice Department rules Hillary Clinton followed law in deleting emails

The Obama administration told a federal court Wednesday that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was within her legal rights to use of her own email account, to take messages with her when she left office and to be the one deciding which of those messages are government records that should be returned.

In the most complete legal defense of Mrs. Clinton, Justice Department lawyers insisted they not only have no obligation, but no power, to go back and demand the former top diplomat turn over any documents she hasn’t already given — and neither, they said, can the court order that.

The defense came as part of a legal filing telling a judge why the administration shouldn’t be required to order Mrs. Clinton and her top aides to preserve all of their emails.

“There is no question that Secretary Clinton had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision — she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server,” the administration lawyers argued. “Under policies issued by both the National Archives and Records Administration (‘NARA’) and the State Department, individual officers and employees are permitted and expected to exercise judgment to determine what constitutes a federal record.”

The legal brief said that means employees are required to “review each message, identify its value and either delete it or move it to a record-keeping system.”

It’s unclear whether Mrs. Clinton’s review process, which she said involved her lawyers making determinations, qualifies.

How refreshing that Bob Schieffer has followed up his post-resignation statement (“Maybe we should have been more skeptical” with more revelations, none of which are new here. Just that it is so nice to see Bob join with admin so completely.

I’d apologize for posting Bob’s whole statement, but we’ve waited so long, and it looks so good.

Though many in media have written off GOP front-runner Donald Trump as a joke candidate, longtime newsman Bob Schieffer is not one of them.
“I take Donald Trump very seriously now. I think he could wind up getting the Republican nomination,” the former host of CBS News’ “Face the Nation” said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette.
Schieffer suggested that one of the reasons Trump is polling so well with voters is that he has been very clever about figuring out which issues have Americans most concerned.
“I think [Trump has] made a very good list, a wonderful catalog, of all the things that people are upset about and worried about and concerned about. He hasn’t proposed any solutions, but he has managed to make a list of things that people feel frustrated about, and I think this frustration comes from the fact that the government doesn’t work anymore,” Schieffer said.
Schieffer’s comments came in response to being asked to comment on the 2016 presidential race as a whole.
“Every campaign is different, and this may be the most different yet. I think we’re at a real turning point in this country. I think we’ve had a total breakdown in our political system: the way we elect people, the way we conduct our politics now. And you can see it on both sides now, Democrats and Republicans,” the former CBS host said.
“This is not the way that we ought to be electing people, and these are not campaigns that are about what they ought to be about. I think it all goes back to the way that money has now overwhelmed our political system. People used to get into politics because they wanted to change things, or they wanted to do something,” he added.
He said many candidates only run so they can eventually leverage political office into something bigger and more lucrative.
“And it just didn’t use to be that way,” Schieffer said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Schieffer explained what he meant when he said in a separate interview in July that the press “wasn’t skeptical enough” when Barack Obama first ran for president in 2008.
“I don’t really think that reporters had the kid gloves on with Barack Obama, but he was new, and he was exciting and he was a great story, and he made a great speech,” he said.
“And I think people didn’t question how’s he going to get these things done, how will he be at getting coalitions together, how well did he get along with people in the Senate while he was there, those kinds of questions. I think we probably should have been more skeptical, but he was such a good story,” he added.http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bob-schieffer-take-trump-seriously/article/2571899

The same women who demand the right of women to die on the battlefield and say nothing when big media makes a joke about Donald’s hair, go ballistic when Donald says something stupid about Carly’s appearance. If looks really mattered, which they do not in this context, then he could have compared her to the actress Margaret Hamilton, whom everyone is familiar with because of the role she played in a certain 1939 Hollywood movie. Yes, it was a stupid throw away line, but which is more important–saving the country or an dumb comment about somebody’s looks wherein the honors are about equal. But either you have a double standard rule or you don’t. And if you do, then it needs to be enforced uniformly across the board. I am telling you now, the left cannot live with ANY standard the enforcement of which requires consistency. Just ask anyone who knows them. A San Francisco arbitrator who I knew who was a law professor and a famous liberal once told me exactly that. He decried the utter inconsistency of the left, and while he did not necessarily credit them for their intellect, he did admire his conservative colleagues for their consistence. Consistency is the mark of character. Inconsistency in any intellectual endeavor is a character flaw.

invoke the “double standard” objection when Donald makes a comment about Carly’s appearance say nothing when

How refreshing that Bob Schieffer has followed up his post-resignation statement (“Maybe we should have been more skeptical” with more revelations, none of which are new here. Just that it is so nice to see Bob join with admin so completely.
———
“We (in big media) should have taken Trump more seriously”—Bob Scheiffer

Oh?

And why is that Bob?

It isn’t that you and your corrupt colleagues failed to take him seriously.

You are entitled to be wrong–to err is human, to forgive divine,

And being divine ourselves, naturally we forgive you.

For that.

The problem you have lies elsewhere.

Strategically, you focused on the messenger and ignored the message.

Put differently, if Trump did not exist we would have to invent him.

Because you and the rest of the political class

Have been fucking the country like a house cat, Bob . . .

But even worse, you and your colleagues showed us whose side you are really on.

I don’t know if it is realistic to just erase the ruling class. In any endeavor of that nature, some would survive, and most likely the worst of them. The more realistic solution would be to destroy their corrupt hierarchy, because I have got to believe that there are some, and perhaps many in that group who hold views closer to our own, but may never have the opportunity to express them because the hierarchy they are a part of will brook no dissent from its own self serving ideology which puts their members first and the American People last. This was a tolerable situation in the past, because the fate of the working class and the elites were joined. Therefore, much as they despised each other they needed each other to create economic value. Moreover, when the country was in trouble, they both manned the barricades. Not so now. As the elites have withdrawn from any commitment to the working class. Today, they are eager to draw on the world market for labor, and the working class is in their view, mere subjects, with no voice in policy matters, and no right to work, and no right to a decent living. Most arguments of this nature see socialism as the solution. If you think that is the case, then you really need to familiarize yourself with the writing of George Orwell, or study the behavior of the IRS and you will discover the fundamental flaw in that prescription. The only viable solution is a return to constitutional government, and line those who preach post constitutional government up against a wall, or let them leave the public stage to be heard from no more.

I see that the ratio of government jobs to factory jobs is now 1.8 to 1.

Given the tendency of government managers to engage in what is euphemistically described as empire building at taxpayer expense, the question that needs to be asked for each government job is whether it is creating economic value, rather than simply serving someone’s political agenda. If you apply lean services methodology to government bodies and have the political will to see it through, I would guess that 3 our of 10 jobs could be eliminated with no negative impact on the public. If you put business people in charge, that is what will happen. And it has got to happen.

It is clear to me, actually it is obvious, that any effort to control federal debt will have to begin with an aggressive and sustained effort to cut government. Then unearned entitlements. Then government guarantees on pensions. And lastly, to earned entitlements based on means testing. You could inflate the currency but the political reaction would be like that in the old Weimar Republic and what came next.

This from Goldberg, I think, explains not just his blindspot but the blindspot of many who agree with him. And I’m not talking about an ideological blindspot. Goldberg is a rock-ribbed conservative.

The blindspot is his inability to give Trump supporters credit for being just as pure:

To wit: I don’t think Trump is a conservative. I don’t think he’s a very serious person. I don’t think he’s a man of particularly good character. I don’t think he can be trusted to do the things he promises.

That is exactly how Trump supporters view The Establishment. In fact, it is a PERFECT description of a Republican Establishment that for two decades has grown the size of the federal government, refused to secure the border, attacked the Tea Party, surrendered to Democrats, and appeased our evil media at almost every opportunity (see a full list of GOP sins at Conservative Treehouse).

With that in mind, there is nothing NOT conservative about supporting Trump.

Trump supporters believe, and for good reason (Trump has been consistent on these issues), that Trump will…

Defeat an existential threat to the Republican Party and by extension America by finally securing the border. For good reason (history, evidence), they don’t trust the others, or at least not as much.
Kill terrorists.
Lower middle class taxes.
Simplify the tax code.
Fix the Veterans Administration.
Finally annihilate the feckless, dishonest, cowardly, insulting, snobbish, appeasing, corrupted Republican Establishment — and with it all their toxic cronies and parasites in the grifter Consultant Class and mercenary Chamber of Commerce.
Getting the big conservative things right and burning the diseased village to save the village sounds conservative enough for me.

Why Trump appeals to conservatives, even though he may not be a conservative. It is in response to Goldberg’s attack on Trump. It is hard to get someone like Goldberg to understand your argument when his livelihood at FOX/National review, bastions of the corrupt GOP establishment depends on him not understanding it.
____________

You wonder why we’re frustrated, desperate for a person who can actually articulate some kind of push-back? Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are what the GOP give us? SERIOUSLY?

Which leads to the next of your GOP talking points. Where you opine on Fox:

“Politics is a game where you don’t get everything you want”

Fair enough. But considering we of questionable judgment have simply been demanding common sense, ie. fiscal discipline, a BUDGET would be nice.

The last federal budget was passed in September of 2007, and EVERY FLIPPING INSUFFERABLE YEAR we have to go through the predictable fiasco of a Government Shutdown Standoff and/or a Debt Ceiling increase specifically because there is NO BUDGET!

That’s a strategy?

That’s the GOP strategy? Essentially: Lets plan for an annual battle against articulate Democrats and Presidential charm, using a creepy guy who cries and another old mumbling fool who dodders, knowing full well the MSM is on the side of the other guy to begin with?

THAT’S YOUR GOP STRATEGY?

Don’t tell me it’s not, because if it wasn’t there’d be something else being done – there isn’t.

And don’t think we don’t know the 2009 “stimulus” became embedded in the baseline of the federal spending, and absent of an actual budget it just gets spent and added to the deficit each year, every year. Yet this is somehow smaller fiscal government?

This is why I say, the bottom line of the objections to Trump by the establishment have nothing to do with whether he is or is not a conservative. They have everything to do with protecting the Washington cartel, and the status quo pecking order. Everything? Yes. Everything. So the question for the voters is are you willing to protect the corrupt status quo in Washington who are working against you and your children. Many on the dole would say yes. Many others have no opinion, because thinking makes their head hurt. But now, some–and more every day are awakening to the truth, and seeing that the establishment has given up on the country, therefore it is only right that the country should give up on the establishment. Quid pro quo baby.

The Republican establishment, flush with the 2014 victory promised the base that they would fight Obama, and then turned right around an enabled him to implement the very progressive agenda which the base found to be most odious. And then, to add insult to injury, passed Cromulus thereby rewarding their donors, penalizing the base and enriching their own party coffers.

And now, they claim Trump is the problem?????????

They are delusional . . . .

They need to brush up their Shakespeare:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

“Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.

They ascribe to them small-minded bigotries, often religious and racial, and ignorant antagonisms.

But normal people prize order because they can’t buy their way out of disorder.

People in gated communities of the mind, who glide by in Ubers, have bought their way out and are safe.

Not to mention those in government-maintained mansions who glide by in SUVs with by security details.

Rulers can afford to see national-security threats as an abstraction—yes,

Yes, we must better integrate our new populations.

But the unprotected, the vulnerable, have a right and a reason to worry.

Prediction From the Grave
by Richard Fernandez
September 11, 2015 – 4:44 am

Very few would have predicted on September 11, 2001 that the headlines 14 years later would feature an American president arming Iran; that there would be millions of Middle Eastern Arabs flooding into the heart of Europe. Or Saudi Arabia, while refusing to accept any refugees from an Islamic civil war in Syria, would instead offer to build 200 mosques in Germany, one for every hundred who has arrived to spare the Germans the trouble and expense of building the mosques themselves.

Few could have imagined that rail and road transport from Hungary to Germany would be interrupted to hold back floods of people in numbers unseen since World War 2. Not many would have guessed that the Palestinian flag would fly over the UN in New York, despite the objection of the United States.

Hardly anyone would have foretold the return of the Russia to the Middle East, spearheaded by a legion of forces who had honed their skill at “hybrid warfare” — then an unknown term — in Ukraine. Not just anyone mind you, but as Michael Weiss in the Daily Beast notes, “the Kremlin isn’t sending just any troops to prop up the Assad regime. It’s dispatching units that spearheaded Russia’s slow-rolling invasion of Ukraine.”

Except one man: Osama bin Laden. Unlike the American public, which still expected its leaders to defend them against aggression on that fatal day, Bin Laden had come to the conclusion the American elite would run at the slightest difficulty. What convinced him was the precipitate withdrawal of American troops from Somalia in 1996 following the incident popularly known as Blackhawk Down.

The photos taken by Canadian photographer Paul Watson, of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu spelled the beginning of the end for U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force. Domestic opinion turned hostile as horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed—-including this Pulitzer-prize winning footage of Somali warlord Mohammed Aideed’s supporters dragging the body of U.S. Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland through the streets of Mogadishu, cheering. President Clinton immediately abandoned the pursuit of Aideed, the mission that cost Cleveland his life and gave the order for all American soldiers to withdraw from Somalia by March 31, 1994. Other Western nations followed suit.

When the last U.N. peacekeepers left in 1995, ending a mission that had cost more than $2 billion, Mogadishu still lacked a functioning government. The battle deaths, and the harrowing images prompted lingering U.S. reluctance to get involved in Africa’s crises, including the following year’s genocide in Rwanda. In 1996, Osama bin Laden cited the incident as proof that the U.S. was unable to stomach casualties: when “one American was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear.” Never before or since had a photo altered a nation’s political destinies so much so.

Bin Laden knew that the weakness of the West lay, not in it’s armed forces, technology or economy, but in the alienation of its own elites. Attempting to explain the complete capitulation of the Western decision makers to the refugee flood rushing at their borders Peggy Noonan notes in her Wall Street Journal article that the political and cultural elites no longer even regard territorial integrity as an existential issue. It was something well enough to have, but certainly nothing worth defending to the point of inconvenience; and most assuredly not unto the death.

Like the barons of yesteryear, they were secure in castles rising above the squalid countryside, safe from pestilence, hunger and even war. Noonan describes the modern aristocracy as a law unto themselves, living in a world unto itself, with more in common with foreign princes, other elite classes than with the commoners who surround them.

Rules on immigration and refugees are made by safe people. These are the people who help run countries, who have nice homes in nice neighborhoods and are protected by their status. Those who live with the effects of immigration and asylum law are those who are less safe, who see a less beautiful face in it because they are daily confronted with a less beautiful reality—normal human roughness, human tensions. Decision-makers fear things like harsh words from the writers of editorials; normal human beings fear things like street crime. Decision-makers have the luxury of seeing life in the abstract. Normal people feel the implications of their decisions in the particular.

The decision-makers feel disdain for the anxieties of normal people, and ascribe them to small-minded bigotries, often religious and racial, and ignorant antagonisms. But normal people prize order because they can’t buy their way out of disorder.

People in gated communities of the mind, who glide by in Ubers, have bought their way out and are safe. Not to mention those in government-maintained mansions who glide by in SUVs followed by security details. Rulers can afford to see national-security threats as an abstraction—yes, yes, we must better integrate our new populations. But the unprotected, the vulnerable, have a right and a reason to worry.

Economists describe this as the principal-agent problem. “The dilemma exists because sometimes the agent is motivated to act in his own best interests rather than those of the principal. … Common examples of this relationship include corporate management (agent) and shareholders (principal), or politicians (agent) and voters (principal).” In layman’s language, the principal-agent problem occurs when it is the interest of the agent to sell out the principal.

The problem arises where the two parties have different interests and asymmetric information (the agent having more information), such that the principal cannot directly ensure that the agent is always acting in its (the principal’s) best interests, particularly when activities that are useful to the principal are costly to the agent, and where elements of what the agent does are costly for the principal to observe. Moral hazard and conflict of interest may arise. … The deviation from the principal’s interest by the agent is called “agency costs”.

One warning sign of an incipient problem is when the agent actually prefers the company of the principal’s enemies. ”You don’t negotiate deals with your friends. You negotiate them with your enemies,” Obama told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. Jeremy Corbyn who is the leading candidate to head the UK Labour Party, takes a similar view. He thinks the solution to the collapse of Syria, besides admitting more refugees, is to talk to Britain’s enemies in the region.

Shane Harris, writing in the Daily Beast, illustrates why Osama Bin Laden’s insight into Western leadership was so accurate. There are none so blind as they who will not see. “More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military’s Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned.”

The complaints spurred the Pentagon’s inspector general to open an investigation into the alleged manipulation of intelligence. The fact that so many people complained suggests there are deep-rooted, systemic problems in how the U.S. military command charged with the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State assesses intelligence.

“The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command,” one defense official said.

Two senior analysts at CENTCOM signed a written complaint sent to the Defense Department inspector general in July alleging that the reports, some of which were briefed to President Obama, portrayed the terror groups as weaker than the analysts believe they are. The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups to adhere to the administration’s public line that the U.S. is winning the battle against ISIS and al Nusra, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the analysts claim.

The reason so many voters may feel uneasy about Hillary Clinton’s private email server, even if they can’t articulate quite why, is the unease any principal feels at finding his agent has an unregistered cell phone with all the messages erased. It all goes back to Bin Laden’s insight that the weakest link in the West is not the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines but the email server that gives them orders. Give the elites a way to weasel out and they’ll take it.

And they’ve been taking it ever since. These cumulative disappointments have tended to undermine confidence in the leadership of the Western political class. If the process continues indefinitely the elites will eventually lose legitimacy. The first sign of declining confidence is the emergence of high-handed behavior in the agent, or what Victor Hanson calls “lawlessness”.

This increases social agency costs dramatically, often to the point of paralysis. ”Lawlessness” only exacerbates the agency problem. It does not solve it. The process of estrangement can go on for a long time. Ironically it is often marked by a deceptive passivity on the part of the principals, because they are no longer engaged in the relationship. The agents are thus lulled into complacent belief in the trust of the principal.

Yet despite the outward calm, it is a time of tremendous tension with everyone waiting for a trigger event which will initiate the clear break. There will be many false starts which portend a resolution, indeed some activists may even try to manufacture trigger events to precipitate things intentionally, only to see their efforts fizzle.

Such events are not so easily anticipated. Ironically a real trigger event will almost certainly be completely unexpected. No one — or only very few — will recognize a trigger’s significance when it arrives. Only belatedly and after it takes a life of its own will it be identified. The best anyone can do is build up their networks to be ready for the day. The irksome thing about the future, is that except for climate scientists, Marxists and Islamists, it is hard to predict.

For most of the rest of the world the saga which began on September 11, 2001 still has no ending. Osama bin Laden was satisfied that the West would be weak enough to conquer. ”It is written,” he must have thought. Yet maybe he’s wrong. In this age of wiped email servers and emergent forces, nothing is written.

Reality has bitten Republicans in the backsides again as the Justice Department is saying that Hillary Clinton’s emails broke no laws.

Justice Department lawyers argued before a federal court that Hillary Clinton’s handling of her emails broke no laws.

————

Oh wadda a shock, not really.

The folks that wanted to see Hillary go to jail for this email bullshit will just pretend they didn’t hear this decision…wonder if Trump will shut up about it now, or will spin it in some other negative way.

I went to service my car yesterday and my long time service advisor , a good Christian family man, again asked me how come so many Jews voted for Obama. O had no real answer. He felt the Iran deal was the beginning of the end for not only Israel, but the USA. Even more compelling was that he is s middle class guy who put his kids through college and they can’t find jobs. We both agreed that our kids will never achieve the American dream which really made me depressed. I to have 2 boys in college in Boston and a 9 year old daughter. I see that despite their hard work I will have to support all of them in some way that rest of my life. I am tired and getting older and despite making a good living, I don’t think I can do it.

“I fully think apologizing is a great thing,” the famously self-assured Trump replied before winning the studio audience’s applause by adding: “But you have to be WRONG. … I will absolutely apologize sometime in the hopefully distant future if I’m ever wrong.”

That’s how it went, with both Fallon and the audience eating out of his hand.

In what passed as one of the segment’s more serious moments, Fallon asked what Trump was doing on the campaign trail that his Republicans aren’t to win support from voters.

“I think they want our country to be respected again,” Trump said. “I think they feel that if I’m president, I will do some great things for our country, and we’re gonna be respected again…. There’s a movement going on, and it’s amazing to watch.”

Trump’s interview session with Fallon was remarkably similar to a comedy sketch that had Fallon impersonating Trump, complete with orange wig, as they faced one another on opposite sides of a picture frame, as if one of them were the other’s mirror image.

In this setting, Trump could be interviewed by the only person he deems worthy of the task – himself.

“How are you gonna create great jobs in this country?” asked Fallon-as-Trump during the exchange.

“I’m just gonna do it,” Trump replied.

“But how?”

“By doing it. It just happens!”

“Geeeenius!” exclaimed Fallon-Trump.

During the real, desk-and-sofa interview, Trump shared his vision as president for America: “We have to become rich again, and we’re going to become great again.” The crowd cheered. [snip]

“I think you dig yourself a hole sometimes, a deep hole, and then instead of getting out of the hole, you just dig deeper. And if you keep digging, eventually you might come out in China and be the president of China.”

As the interview drew to a close, Fallon proposed a new campaign song for Trump to consider. Pressing a key on his MacBook, he brought to life a pounding anthem by DJ Khaled called “All I Do Is Win.”

In this latest iteration of the who lost China debate–or in this case the base of the Republican Party, strategists would do well to note that it is not Trump, but the not so dynamic duo of Boeher and McConnell plus their low brow entourage that are the cause in fact. An opposition party that plays the game of failure theater, and rolls over for the progressive (i.e. communist) agenda, like those two surrender monkeys do, has no right to expect your vote. And no right to ask for it.

JB, I don’t know what your friend kids or your kids are getting their degrees in, but just like anything else, you have to have skills that are in demand. My son majored in IT and my daughter in Speech Pathology, both of which are in demand, and neither had a problem finding jobs. Now, if you major in a low demand skill, like journalism, English or Liberal Arts, then your chance of finding a well paying job is lessened. As with anything, it’s supply and demand. The demand jobs right now are the STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and math).

I’m not say on all is rosey in the job market, because it’s not. However, people need to take ownership have to develop skills that are needed.

It’s good to have Fallon-Trump in text too. Friend Shirley, approaching age of 90, spit nails at Trump after his dust-up with Megyn. Now she hangs around when a station teases he’s coming up. So the text above will be perfect for her.
++++++++++++++++++++

I’m just giving this some daylight. Yahoo has also reported it.

Iran has reportedly found an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium, following assessment that the country is running low on the nuclear raw material and just days after President Obama essentially secured an international nuclear deal with the rouge [SIC] nation.
The discovery was reported first by Reuters and based on comments made by Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi to the state news agency IRNA.
“I cannot announce (the level of) Iran’s uranium mine reserves,” Salehi was quoted as saying. “The important thing is that before aerial prospecting for uranium ores we were not too optimistic, but the new discoveries have made us confident about our reserves.”http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/12/report-iran-finds-unexpectedly-high-uranium-reserve-after-dems-seal-nuke-deal/

The discovery of vast nuclear material AFTER the Obama deal was done cuts the very heart out of the claim that the UN can monitor compliance. Why? Because the Obama administration’s entire negotiations with Iran is based on the idea that Iran has to import uranium ore. If it doesn’t have to import the ore, there is no way the IAEA can rationally guess at, much less scientifically estimate, the amount of enrich uranium Iran is producing.

—————

Surprise: Iran declares it has found new uranium deposits
they were hidden under the river of heavy water

By: streiff

If the situation were not so dire, I would be laughing.

Not must a gentle chuckle, but a rollicking, bowel-loosening belly laugh.

Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said on Saturday.

The comments cast doubt on previous assessments from some Western analysts who said the country had a low supply and would sooner or later would need to import uranium, the raw material needed for its nuclear program.

Any indication Iran could become more self-sufficient will be closely watched by world powers, which reached a landmark deal with Tehran in July over its program. They had feared the nuclear activities were aimed at acquiring the capability to produce atomic weapons – something denied by Tehran.

Why is this important? Because the Obama administration’s entire negotiations with Iran is based on the idea that Iran has to import uranium ore. If it doesn’t have to import the ore, there is no way the IAEA can rationally guess at, much less scientifically estimate, the amount of enrich uranium Iran is producing.

A report published in 2013 by U.S. think-tanks Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists said the scarcity and low quality of Iran’s uranium resources compelled it “to rely on external sources of natural and processed uranium”.

It added: “Despite the Iranian leadership’s assertions to the contrary, Iran’s estimated uranium endowments are nowhere near sufficient to supply its planned nuclear program.”

As the article says, now Iran has a completely self-sufficient nuclear industry, from the mine to the nuclear warhead. All it needs is commercial deals with the West and about $150 billion in cash and it has a nuclear weapons program in full operation.

That’s true Outris. I am a lawyer which neither kid was interested in as they see how miserable I am . One is going to get a degree in finance and try working for a large brokerage firm, the other one is your basic liberal arts /political science and he will have a tough time finding a job.

S, 5:48 O admin, Kerry’s State Dept and the Democratic Party have been played for suckers
===========
I’ve become much more cynical; I’m thinking they knew and are doubled over laughing now.

wbboei – She is still learning how completely our Judeo-Christian mores have been abandoned. I think the scope of the problem may always be beyond her comprehension. I don’t know that she’ll come around to voting for DT but she likes him now.

I just saw that latest expose video by O’Keefe showing Hillary voter registration people in Nevada basically saying to do anything until they’re caught. I remember Obama doing a LOT of shenanigans in Nevada in 2008 – I’ll bet the attorney caught on this video worked for Obama 2008.

I saw a voter registration table at a local university in 2008. It had a big sign saying “democratic voter registration”. I went up and told the college kids staffing it that I didn’t think that was legal (voter registration is supposed to be non-partisan), but of course they insisted it was. It didn’t feel right to me. I guess I was right…

Jimmy Fallon got a Donald Trump bump as the GOP presidential hopeful’s appearance took “The Tonight Show” to its highest ratings for a Friday broadcast in 18 months.

NBC’s “Tonight Show” brought in 4.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s preliminary estimates. In adults 18-49, Fallon averaged a 1.2 rating. That was Fallon’s highest mark for a Friday broadcast since Feb. 28, 2014, shortly after his debut at the “Tonight Show” desk.

I just got a fundraising email describing the House voting against the Iran deal as a huge victory and requesting money to continue this noble fight.

How ironic.

The strategy those assholes should be following is to refuse to vote until all the documents are presented, and ditto with the senate. Then when the jackal in the White House sees that they will not vote until that information is provided he will attempt to implement unilaterally, they can enjoin him from so doing—pursuant to the very act they passes a few months ago.

But they insist on playing the game of failure theater, and at the same time ask for financial support from the very people they just sold down the river.

Actually wbboei, I believe that’s what they did in the House. They are refusing to vote on the Corker Cardin disapproval resolution. They voted down an approval resolution (as a treaty). The House is following the three step plan Cruz outlined in his letter to to Boehner/McConnell. It’s McConnell who won’t go along.

The House on Friday rejected a resolution to approve the Iran nuclear deal, with the vote underscoring how controversial the accord has been with President Obama’s own party.

While most Democrats voted to approve the nuclear bargain, 25 voted against it, creating a wedge that Republicans hope to use to their advantage in the 2016 elections.

Boehner had to go along with this plan. His position as Speaker of the House may be in some jeopardy. Or at least enough threat of jeopardy that he doesn’t want a vote on his status.

Cruz demolished Boehner and McConnell in his speech to the Phyllis Schlafly group today, with a story about Republican leadership wearing pink tutus and slapping each other with feathers if Obama tells them to:

http://tinyurl.com/nbrweas
Every Republican voted against the resolution, with the exception of libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who voted “present.” The tally was 162-269.

…

After the resolution of approval failed, the House passed legislation 247-186 that would prevent Obama from lifting sanctions against Iran. That measure would expire on his successor’s first full day in office in January 2017.

“A senior Senate Republican leadership source reached out to discuss the case I laid out this morning concerning a possible path to breaking Democrats’ Iran deal filibuster. He said Majority Leader McConnell will schedule another cloture vote early next week, likely on Tuesday.

“If and when that fails (assuming none of the 42 filibustering Democrats relent), GOP leadership is considering a number of options, including forcing votes on one or more highly-charged amendments related to the Iran deal.

“This maneuver would respond to Democrats’ politicized posturing in kind, contriving scenarios in which filibuster-sustaining votes would be politically painful to cast, and could be used in future attack ads.”

The Senate will vote on the Iranian Nuclear Deal again next week, and we must do everything we can to break the Democrat’s filibuster in the Senate. There are two courses of action you can immediately take to help make an impact on this historic vote.

FIRST: We need to flood Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s (D-North Dakota) office with phone calls urging her to vote against the Iranian Nuclear Deal. You can call her Capitol office at: (202) 224-2043.

SECOND: If you do not wish to make phone calls, you can make a contribution to help fund our advertising campaign pressuring Congress to vote against the disastrous Iran Nuclear Deal.

You can make a contribution to our ad campaign – HERE. Your contributions will help fund ad campaigns like the one below:

It is just parliamentary maneuvering. And McConnell has scheduled a vote next week, contrary to what Cruz recommended. It is just more failure theater. NO VOTE UNTIL WE SEE THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT, ESPECIALLY NOW THAT IRAN HAS DISCOVERED URANIUM ON ITS OWN SOIL, THEREBY NEGATING THE ENFORCEMENT MECHANISM IN THE IRAN DEAL. Go back and read the posting above by shreiff.

This maneuver would respond to Democrats’ politicized posturing in kind, contriving scenarios in which filibuster-sustaining votes would be politically painful to cast, and could be used in future attack ads.”
——-
There is NOTHING about this cowardly approach that helps the American People. All they are interesting in is maneuvering democrats into positions that allow Republicans to run attack ads against them in the next election. This is pure unadulterated bullshit. And we are supposed to send money and waste our time calling senators offices so we can have more republicans in congress. Please. History has shown that when the chips are down, democrats are willing to tank their own political future to support the party, and that my friend will not change. 2014 stands for that proposition. So in the final analysis, the RINO supports the policy, lies to his constitutents, and all he is interested in is maneuvering democrats into positions where they can take their seats. It is a farce.

he Senate will vote on the Iranian Nuclear Deal again next week, and we must do everything we can to break the Democrat’s filibuster in the Senate.
——–
McConnell could break the deal if he changed the rules like Reid did. But he won’t. He is a fucking pariah but he won’t bend. He and his staffers are millionaires, and their coffers are lined with lobbyist money. That is who he represents.

They voted down an approval resolution (as a treaty)
———–
Big fucking deal. Corker has already changed the rules so the treaty angle is now irrelevant. More failure theater. But it looks good to the ignoranti, and big media will not tell them the truth.

Holdthem and Lorac…I agree, that is why I used the word traitorous…O pushed it through and the Democratic Party supported the deal…they own it, they allowed this…the D party has lost its sense of reality…some of our worst suspicions and fears are probably true…

S 4:53
———-
GOOD! Sometimes I fear I’ll be apprehended as one of those lone terrorists Barry’s so certain are a danger to ?
============================
Today’s TV does not have enough Trump for me. So here’s this to fill a gap:
Trump vs. Walker: A tale of two tailgates
At Iowa’s big annual college football showdown, Donald Trump was the winner.

…We want Trump! We want Trump!” chanted a pocket of students to Walker’s left as he spoke.
On his right, as Walker wrapped up, a woman warned a group of people who were pushing toward the front to calm down. Trump, she said, wasn’t here yet.

…When Trump finally arrived at the event, an hour or so after he was expected, he was hard to hear too — but it didn’t matter, because he was drowned out by a shrieking mob that surged toward him when he arrived, causing attendees to fall into each other and setting off a car alarm in the frenzy. Anti-Trump protestors had been waiting to take him on for hours, but they couldn’t break through the packed crowd.

The real estate mogul took the stage to chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” and, impersonating a conductor, he waved his hands in encouragement. He stayed under five minutes, leaving no time for in-depth questions, but enough for handshakes. He left attendees marveling at his appearance, with one half-jokingly asking his friend whether he’d ever wash his hand again after shaking Trump’s.
“That was better than the game!” exclaimed one attendee.
“That guy’s worth a billion dollars!” said another, leading others to speculate that it was much more….
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/donald-trump-scott-walker-iowa-football-tailgate-2016-213578
☺
♥

Wow. I’ve never before seen foxy frown in purple.
Lu keeps us apprised of the brass ring, the one that is NO prize.
Me? I’m still upbeat enough about the prospects for us with Trump, that I’ll post some of that article about his campaign hats – of which I have one. Part of their problem/charm is he has only one size available. I purchased the white one with gold embroidery. The mirror here tells me I need to wear it daily.

Trump’s Campaign Hat Becomes an Ironic Summer Accessory
“…I was certainly surprised to the extent it caught on,” Mr. Trump said in a phone interview last week. “It’s become the hottest fashion item there is.”
The hats, in four different designs, are $25 on the Trump campaign website and in Midtown at the store in the Trump Tower, where they promptly sold out.
The hats’ appeal seems to rest partly in their studied outmodedness (think the 2.0 version of the trucker hats repopularized by millennials) and partly in their uncanny ability to capture the current absurdist political moment, with 17 Republicans vying, circuslike, for their party’s nomination.
“I’m at a loss to describe the ironic charm of the hats,” said Nu Wexler, a public policy spokesman at Twitter who received one as a gift from a colleague. “It’s a huge hat that looks like something you’d wear at a golf club in South Florida in the ’80s….”http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/fashion/trumps-campaign-hat-becomes-an-ironic-summer-accessory.html?_r=1

One more thought going back to the enthusiasm of the Iowa college crowd. So glad someone other than Obama is sucking the air out of campaigns this time around. KARMA baby, for all the RINOS, all the Traitors.

You look at a guy like Corker. The architect of the Iran mess which will release $150 billion of frozen assets to the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world. What is he, I mean really. He made his money in construction, but one can infer that he was backed by either family money or something. Just like now, he is backed by MAJOR corporate money–he gets more of that than any other Senator with so little tenure. He is a very small man, in stature and in character. Of course he more than makes up for it with that brilliant diamond stick pin, and his ownership of Ann Haven mansion which was built by the Coke a cola bottling company. Yes he is a fucking stud alright–a real southern gentleman, who missed his calling. He should have been a river boat gambler, flamboyant and willing to bet it all–including our future so he can win the pot. He is the epitome of what Richard Fernandez in his seminal blog Predictions from the Grave. For he is Bob a natural born aristocrat, who stands on a ladder to compensate for his diminutive stature, so he can look down his long aristocrat nose at the rest of us, including Cruz. Like Mitch he is symptomatic of how far adrift our political system has strayed. You might think he is a four flusher of the most despicable kind. Me? I really couldn’t comment.
—————
The decision-makers feel disdain for the anxieties of normal people, and ascribe them to small-minded bigotries, often religious and racial, and ignorant antagonisms. But normal people prize order because they can’t buy their way out of disorder.

People in gated communities of the mind, who glide by in Ubers, have bought their way out and are safe. Not to mention those in government-maintained mansions who glide by in SUVs followed by security details. Rulers can afford to see national-security threats as an abstraction—yes, yes, we must better integrate our new populations. But the unprotected, the vulnerable, have a right and a reason to worry.

I sent something to this effect to the beloved man, and got a nice pro forma response back thanking me for taking the time to comment, and assuring me that he and his staff read every response that is sent to him. Color me skeptical, but if it turns out to be true, perhaps he will realize that some of us do see through the veneer and know there is no there there. Except of course, the mansion and diamond stick pin.

“The biggest thing leaders don’t do now is listen. They no longer hear the voices of common people. Or they imitate what they think it is and it sounds backward and embarrassing. In this age we will see political leaders, and institutions, rock, shatter and fall due to that deafness.”

The gap between those who run governments and those who are governed has now grown huge and portends nothing good.

Rules on immigration and refugees are made by safe people. These are the people who help run countries, who have nice homes in nice neighborhoods and are protected by their status.

Those who live with the effects of immigration and asylum law are those who are less safe, who see a less beautiful face in it because they are daily confronted with a less beautiful reality—normal human roughness, human tensions.

Decision-makers fear things like harsh words from the writers of editorials; normal human beings fear things like street crime. Decision-makers have the luxury of seeing life in the abstract.

Normal people feel the implications of their decisions in the particular.

The decision-makers feel disdain for the anxieties of normal people, and ascribe them to small-minded bigotries, often religious and racial, and ignorant antagonisms.

But normal people prize order because they can’t buy their way out of disorder.

People in gated communities of the mind, who glide by in Ubers, have bought their way out and are safe. Not to mention those in government-maintained mansions who glide by in SUVs followed by security details. Rulers can afford to see national-security threats as an abstraction—yes, yes, we must better integrate our new populations. But the unprotected, the vulnerable, have a right and a reason to worry.

Here is the challenge for people in politics: The better you do, the higher you go, the more detached you become from real life.

You use words like “perception” a lot.

But perception is not as important as reality.

The great thing in politics, the needed thing, is for those who are raised high in terms of responsibility and authority to be yet still, in their heads and hearts, of the people, experiencing life as a common person on an average street.

The challenge is to carry the average street inside you. Only then, when the street is wrong, can you persuade it to see what is right.

The biggest thing leaders don’t do now is listen. They no longer hear the voices of common people. Or they imitate what they think it is and it sounds backward and embarrassing. In this age we will see political leaders, and institutions, rock, shatter and fall due to that deafness.

Thinking about that further, the uber ambition of the Harvard people to see themselves separate apart and superior to the rest of society does inhibit their ability to understand the street and persuade them when the street is wrong. They see the problem in terms of resisting a lynch mob, and the application of force etc. And they rely on mascots from so called oppressed minorities to articulate an agenda congenile to their interests. In the process however they grow as detached from the people as the Saudi royals.

And that is the reason why the public at large does not give a damned that Donald takes the shots he does. After 30 years of political oppression masquerading under the term political correctness, he has thrown open the gates of a prison camp, and liberation is the predominant reaction. Plus, he speaks their language and understands their culture.

And McConnell has scheduled a vote next week, contrary to what Cruz recommended. It is just more failure theater. NO VOTE UNTIL WE SEE THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT, ESPECIALLY NOW THAT IRAN HAS DISCOVERED URANIUM ON ITS OWN SOIL, THEREBY NEGATING THE ENFORCEMENT MECHANISM IN THE IRAN DEAL.

I’m well aware that McConnell is working to support Obama on this. I was making the point that the House is not.

I must admit I was wrong about the dims. Pure as driven snow they are. Just because they use a convicted felon to mastermind the Iran deal, along with the Mullah’s people doesn’t make this a bad deal. Its the deal itself that makes it a bad deal. True to form, the criminal is the spouse of a democart congresswoman from . . . yup, you guessed it, Illinois.

The cartel lives, and like in the old monster movie: It alive!!!!!!!!
———-
Convicted fraudster Robert Creamer played a key role in selling the Iran deal to Democrats, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Creamer, a political consultant who is intimately connected with Obama’s inner political circle, pleaded guilty in 2005 to tax violations and bank fraud. He served time in a federal prison and was under house arrest. After finishing his sentence, Creamer worked for Obama’s presidential campaign, training organizers.

As Breitbart News first exposed in 2009, Creamer used his prison time to work on a political manual: Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win. In it, he devised a strategy to guide a future “progressive” president. His plan included implementing “universal health care” as a first step to other radical reforms, including amnesty for illegal aliens. Obama strategist David Axelrod called the book “a blueprint for future victories.”

In the book, Creamer also warns against an effort by “Neocons” to launch a military strike on Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Creamer also blames America for the rise of the Iranian regime: “The United States helped set the stage for the fundamentalist resurgence of Islam in Iran,” he argues, by overthrowing the Iranian government in 1953 and backing the Shah. (These same views are widely shared in the Obama administration.)

The Wall Street Journal reports that Creamer advocated for the Iran deal with the help of the Ploughshares Fund, a pro-Iran organization.

(me – DT is foxy like a BC…goes straight down the middle and steals the best talking points from each side…no wonder the Repub establishment is freaking out…love it…one can only imagine how many more secrets he has up his sleeve to splash out into the open for all to see and understand)

Donald Trump went after corporate America on Face the Nation today, bashing hedge fund managers and lobbyists and CEOs who get to do what they want because they appoint their friends to the company board.

Trump again swiped at Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton for being owned by donors, adding to John Dickerson that there should be a corporate tax deduction to get companies to bring jobs back to America.

But when Dickerson asked about CEO pay being so much larger than the pay of the average worker, Trump said it’s because company CEOs put their friends on the boards and “get whatever they want, because their friends love sitting on the board.” He called the whole thing a “total and complete joke.”

But when asked about his possible campaign finance reform plans, Trump simply said, “The biggest reform is to get competent people.”

Republican presidential candidate and businessman Donald Trump said Sunday that increasing CEO pay is “a total and complete joke” but that he can’t do anything to change it.

“It does bug me. It’s very hard if you have a free enterprise system to do anything about that,” Trump said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “You know the boards of companies are supposed to do it but I know companies very well and the CEO puts in all his friends…and they get whatever they want you know because their friends love sitting on the board.”

“That’s the system that we have and it’s a shame and its disgraceful,” Trump said

Trump is at the top of the 2016 GOP field in the new CBS News Battleground Tracker that surveyed Republican primary voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson sits in second place in all three surveys, but fell just four points short of Trump’s 29 percent support in Iowa.

The difference, Trump said, is this: “I’m a dealmaker, I’ll make great deals for this country, Ben can’t do that.”

Later in the interview he circled back to Carson, unprompted, and said, he’s “a very very nice man but…this will not be a good situation because he’s not a dealer, he’s not a negotiator.” He also said Carson won’t be able to bring wealth back to the U.S.

Trump offered a preview of his tax plan, which he said he plans to release in about three weeks.

“Generally, it’s going to be a reduction,” he said, calling for a lower corporate tax rate that allows companies to bring money back into the country.

“Corporations rightfully don’t bring it back because they have a massive tax to pay,” he said. “We’ve got to make it so they can bring it back. And I’ll be bringing it back and we’re going to have a lot of money pouring into the United States if I’m elected.”

The middle class would also see its tax burden lowered, Trump said, but “for the hedge fund guys, they’re going to be paying up.” Last month, he said on “Face the Nation” that hedge fund managers were “getting away with murder” because they pay such a small amount in taxes.

Asked about other changes he might make as president on issues like campaign finance, term limits or a balanced budget, Trump said, “The biggest reform is to get competent people in office. I mean that’s to me the biggest reform we could make.”

Trump evaded a question from moderator John Dickerson about how human resources at his companies would have handled derogatory comments he made about fellow GOP candidate Carly Fiorina’s face.

He doubled down on his insistence that he was talking about her persona.

“You could call it bad luck, you could call it she did a bad job. But Hewlett Packard was a disaster and Lucent, the company she was at before Hewlett Packard was a disaster,” he said, referring to two companies where she was an executive. He also mentioned her 2010 loss to Democrat Barbara Boxer in California’s 2010 Senate race.

“The problem is we’re so politically correct that we can’t get out of our way so people make statements that all of a sudden the statement’s such a big deal. I’m only talking about her persona. Her persona is just, she hasn’t done a good job,” he said.

******************************************************

gee…no one thought it was a big deal when Jindal attacked DT with every single insult he could think of…and came back the next day and said he had a squirrel on his head…

For the past several weeks it seemed as if Germany had truly become the promised land for Mideast asylum seekers, primarily those seeking to escape the Syrian civil (and global proxy) war, but according to various media reports, also a material number of “ISIS-linked terrorists.” Then it all came crashing down earlier today when Germany’s beloved by all refugees “Mutti” said genug, and with one decision shut down the border with Austria in the process unraveling decades of customs-union progress (following promptly by the Czech Republic doing the same, with Italy expected to follow suit in the hours ahead).

Ironically, just as Europe is shutting its doors to Syrian refugees, the US is opening its own.

9/13/15. Calls to depose GOP leadership mount: ‘Who is in charge right now?’

“…We, along with millions of Americans, are frustrated that this Republican Party has not stood up to President Obama for his whole time in office,” DeMint said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“The key question is: who is in charge right now?” asked Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “Who is in charge right now of the United States budget?”

…All year, GOP leaders have been going across the aisle and cobbling together votes from Democrats to pass bills that are deeply unpopular with conservatives.
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted a link Friday to an article where Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called GOP efforts to remove funds for Planned Parenthood an “exercise in futility,” and wrote: “We don’t just need a new president. We need new leadership in Congress.”
“Establishment [Republicans] say, ‘Wait till we have a GOP pres.’ If that happens, they’ll say, ‘Wait till we have a filibuster-proof majority.’ #excuses,” Amash tweeted.
Despite the failure of efforts to depose Boehner in the past, there is something different this time around. One of the differences is that the new wave of Republicans elected in the 2014 elections need to make good on their promises to voters.
“Our strategy is to be the people who do what we ran on,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus, which has opposed much of Boehner’s agenda, has said repeatedly….http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/calls-to-depose-gop-leadership-mount-who-is-in-charge-right-now/article/2571962

The Obnoxious and Important Questions I Would Ask At The GOP Debate
Kurt Schlichter | Sep 14, 2015

CNN’s Republican debate on September 16th will be conducted with dignity and gravitas by questioners like Hugh Hewitt and Jake Tapper, who will treat the candidates with a level of respect and courtesy that many of them just don’t deserve. They have to. I don’t.

On behalf of all infuriated conservatives, I demand the right to interrogate the candidates myself. I get to ask a question and a follow-up, and here are the rules. First, answer the damn question. It insults me when you think I’ll somehow forget what I asked, so bewitching is your oratory. Second, answer, then stop talking. If you use more words than the Gettysburg Address (272) you are so, so very wrong. Third, no clichés. If you use the phrase “for the children,” I get to slap you.

Here goes:

Jeb! Bush:

You support amnesty and Common Core, you won’t undo the Iran sellout of Israel on your first day in office and – as we always expected – you’ve come out in support of more gun control. Since you have adopted Hillary’s platform, why are you running as a Republican?

Why are you so damn special that despite there being 320 million other Americans, we can’t do any better than a third Bush?

Dr. Ben Carson:

You’re proud of not being a politician, but what makes you think D.C.’s establishment won’t chew you up and spit you out?

You’re a guy with tremendous accomplishments, morals, and character. Why do you even want to go to Washington?

Jim Gilmore:

Can you name one person you aren’t related to who wants you to be president?

In fact, are you even supposed to be here on stage tonight?

Chris Christie:

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room – what the hell were you thinking snuggling up to Obama?

Other than talking incessantly about killing terrorists – which is cool – in what way are you even remotely a conservative?

Carly Fiorina:

You’re the only female running in the GOP primaries. Would you even be on this stage if you were a dude?

You were a senior officer in a huge corporation that did a lot of government work. Why should we conservatives believe you won’t be just another crony capitalist shafting us and stealing our money for the benefit of your corporate pals?

Lindsey Graham:

Conservatives detest you, and the feeling is mutual. Are you in this as some sort of establishment stalking horse to make sure a real conservative doesn’t derail Jeb! by snagging South Carolina’s delegates?

Anything else interesting that you’d like to tell us tonight?

John Kasich:

You decided to go along with Obamacare in Ohio. Why, as a conservative would I ever support you in the primary over someone committed to the destruction of that socialist atrocity?

Like many, even most, conservatives, I think you’re a smug, sanctimonious jerk who hides his self-righteousness behind a vague, unfocused aura of pseudo-Christian progressivism. Why should I allow you to spend four to eight years in my face telling me how I don’t measure up to your allegedly Jesus-inspired standards?

George Pataki:

Since I really have no idea why you’re running, let me just ask you this: Who’s more badass, Captain Kirk or Picard?

Marco Rubio:

My family is half Cuban, and we loved you and your life story until you lied to us about amnesty – no, that’s not an invitation for you to try to convince us how your past embrace of amnesty was not really an embrace of amnesty. You lied to me once – why should I ever believe anything you ever say again?

Here’s your chance to be clear – do you agree with me and most conservatives that America has zero moral obligation to illegal aliens, that they should receive no government benefits, and that they should leave our country?

Ted Cruz:

I think you are a genius lawyer and a true conservative, but you are off-putting to people who aren’t movement conservatives and I fear your candidacy would be Goldwater II: The Revenge. Do the math for me – how can you possibly win 270 electoral votes?

Wouldn’t you better serve conservatism as Chief Justice Ted Cruz?

Rand Paul:

Like your father, I can listen to you for a couple minutes, find myself nodding in agreement, and then BAM! you say something nutty, usually about foreign policy. How can I be sure you will do the most important thing a president must do – relentlessly and ruthlessly kill America’s enemies?

Chemtrails. Are they a thing?

Scott Walker:

The idea behind your campaign seemed to be that you’re a normal guy who would return us to normalcy, but we conservatives don’t want normalcy anymore. We want vengeance. Will you commit to ruthlessly annihilating liberalism wherever you find it?

More specifically, will you commit to destroying all federal government employee unions?

Mike Huckabee:

You combine a love of big government with a kind of religious paternalism that evokes an unholy love child of LBJ and Elmer Gantry. Can you sketch me out a scenario where you win the general election that doesn’t involve someone releasing tapes of Hillary gleefully vivisecting corgi puppies?

You play bass. Really, is that a president’s instrument?

Bobby Jindal:

As an Asian-American, can the GOP win over that growing minority group by addressing the systemic racism they face because of Democrat-dominated universities’ admissions policies?

I think you’d be a good president, but I don’t think you can win. Shouldn’t you agree to come on board with someone up here on stage who might win and agree to be his/her HHS secretary?

Rick Santorum:

You lost your Senate seat in Pennsylvania back in 2006, meaning you have failed in every election campaign since 2000. Why is this time different?

My country is falling apart and, like most conservatives, that’s my No. 1 priority. Why should I vote for you and re-fight the gay marriage battle that we’ve already decisively lost instead of saving our Constitution from these leftist creeps?

Donald Trump:

Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun watching you make the GOP establishment wince by raising subjects like illegal alien thugs that the elite wants hushed up. We’ve had some laughs. But if you are elected president, you will be the commander-in-chief. This is a no gotcha question – I led soldiers for 27 years, so this is personal to me and to millions of conservatives whose sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers serve. Can you give me one good reason why you are worthy of our trust to lead and to safeguard the lives of the incredible men and women of our armed forces?

I don’t have a follow-up to that question, because at the end of the day, no other question really matters.

Kurt Schlichter (Twitter: @KurtSchlichter) was PERSONALLY RECRUITED to write conservative commentary BY Andrew BREITBART. He is a successful Los Angeles trial lawyer, a veteran with a masters in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a former stand-up comic.

Here is a question for the ENTIRE group, one that I have asked in my head a thousand times, better stated here than I could, appended to the above article by Colonel Schilicter, which in my view asks the sine qua non question which the job of president must know in advance. It flushed out from the underbrush the real leaders and the mere puppet. It will be obvious to anyone with any comprehension that since the turn of the century our nation has been run into the ground by men whose commitment to the country is either shallow as hell, as it was with Bush, or hostile and depraved as we see with the jackal in the White House today. They marched solely and exclusively to the drum beat of their donors. Here then is the CUTTING EDGE QUESTION–and it is plays to Trump’s strong suit:

Who are your top five “big-money” donors, how much did they give, and what, specifically, are THEIR policy objectives?

We need to know that in order to determine whether we are okay with their objectives or not, because promises made to voters are nice, but historically worthless.

By contrast, I am 100% confident that every candidate will be keeping the promises he or she makes to the people who gave them lots of money.

So it only makes sense that we need to know what the policy objectives of your *big-money donors* are.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard8:30AM BST 14 Sep 2015 Comments664 Comments
Debt ratios have reached extreme levels across all major regions of the global economy, leaving the financial system acutely vulnerable to monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve, the world’s top financial watchdog has warned.
The Bank for International Settlements said the wild market ructions of recent weeks and capital outflows from China are warning signs that the massive build-up in credit is coming back to haunt, compounded by worries that policymakers may be struggling to control events.
“We are not seeing isolated tremors, but the release of pressure that has gradually accumulated over the years along major fault lines,” said Claudio Borio, the bank’s chief economist.
The Swiss-based BIS said total debt ratios are now significantly higher than they were at the peak of the last credit cycle in 2007, just before the onset of global financial crisis.
“We are not seeing isolated tremors, but the release of pressure that has gradually accumulated over the years along major fault lines.”
Claudio Borio, head of BIS economic department
Combined public and private debt has jumped by 36 percentage points since then to 265pc of GDP in the the developed economies.
This time emerging markets have been drawn into the credit spree as well. Total debt has spiked 50 points to 167pc, and even higher to 235pc in China, a pace of credit growth that has almost always preceded major financial crises in the past.

Blue is external dollar loans, red is securities
Adding to the toxic mix, off-shore borrowing in US dollars has reached a record $9.6 trillion, chiefly due to leakage effects of zero interest rates and quantitative easing (QE) in the US. This has set the stage for a worldwide dollar squeeze as the Fed reverses course and starts to drain dollar liquidity from global markets.
• US interest rate rises: everything you wanted to know (but were afraid to ask)
Dollar loans to emerging markets (EM) have doubled since the Lehman crisis to $3 trillion, and much of it has been borrowed at abnormally low real interest rates of 1pc. Roughly 80pc of the dollar debt in China is on short-term maturities.

* The figures are for 2014. The figures for Q1 of 2015 cited are slightly different
These countries are now being forced to repay money, though they do not yet face the sort of ‘sudden stop’ in funding that typically leads to a violent crisis.
The BIS said cross-border loans fell by $52bn in the first quarter, chiefly due to deleveraging by Chinese companies. It estimated that capital outflows from China reached $109bn in the first quarter, a foretaste of what may have happened in August after the dollar-peg was broken.

Credit in Emerging Asia has jumped fourfold since 2000 to $25 trillion
China and the emerging economies were able to crank up credit after the Lehman crisis and act as a shock absorber, but there is no region left in the world with much scope for stimulus if anything goes wrong now.
How central banks have lost control of the world
The world is drowning in debt, warns Goldman Sachs
The venerable BIS – the so-called ‘bank of central bankers’ – was the only global body to warn repeatedly and loudly before the Lehman crisis that the system was becoming dangerously unstable.
It has acquired a magisterial authority, frequently clashing with the International Monetary Fund and the big central banks over the wisdom of super-easy money.
Mr Borio said investors have come to count on central banks to keep the game going but engenders moral hazard and is ultimately wishful thinking. “Financial markets have worryingly come to depend on central banks’ every word and deed,” he said.
A disturbing feature of the latest scare over China is a “shift in perceptions in the power of policy”, a polite way of saying that investors have suddenly begun to question whether the emperor is wearing any clothes after all following the botched intervention in the Shanghai stock market and the severing of the dollar exchange peg in August.
“Financial markets have worryingly come to depend on central banks’ every word and deed.”
Claudio Borio, head of BIS economic department
The BIS ‘house-view’ is that the global authorities may have put off the day of reckoning by holding interest rates below their ‘natural’ or Wicksellian rate with each successive cycle but this merely stores up greater imbalances, drawing down prosperity from the future and stretching the elastic further until it snaps back. At some point, you have to take your bitter medicine.

The BIS report said the rich countries have failed to right the ship over the last seven years or bring leverage back down to manageable levels, as the Nordic states succeeded in doing after the banking crises a quarter of a century ago. Instead they seem to be caught in a Japanese trap.
“Aggregate private debt has barely stabilised, let alone started to correct downwards, even in the corporate sector. And government debt continues to rise steadily, in a manner reminiscent of Japan’s trend deterioration in the 1990s,” it said in its quarterly report released over the weekend.

Britain, Spain, and the US have cut household debt ratios but this is still not enough to offset the massive jump in public debt since the Lehman crisis.
France has suffered the worst deterioration of any major country in the developed world, with total non-financial debt levels spiralling upwards by 75 percentage points to 291pc, overtaking Britain at 269pc for the first time in decades.
The concern is what will happen as the Fed prepares to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006, perhaps as soon as this week.
A study on financial spillovers in the BIS report found that much of the global financial system remains anchored to US borrowing rates, whether or not countries have fixed exchanged rates or floating currencies, and regardless of normal theory on trade links and business cycles.
US interest rate rises: everything you need to know
Federal Reserve to leave door open for interest rate rise
On average, a 100 point move in US rates leads to a 43 point move for emerging markets and open developed economies, with powerful knock-on effects on longer-term bond rates. “We find economically and statistically significant spillovers,” it said.
The grim implication is that emerging economies may face a monetary shock as rates ratchet higher, even if the liabilities are in their own currencies.

Total debt to GDP
Enthusiasts for the ‘BRICS’ and mini-BRICS insist that today’s EM squall is entirely different to the crises in the early 1980s and mid-1990s since the governments of these countries no longer borrow in dollars or hard-currencies – though their companies clearly do, and on a very large scale.
The BIS data suggests that this assumption may be complacent. Emerging markets may just as vulnerable this time, and perhaps more so given the much greater stock of debt.

Loans surging in euros
What remains unclear is whether QE by the European Central Bank will delay the denouement yet again. Cross-border loans surged by $748bn in the first quarter, and $536bn of this was in euro-denominated debt.
Even American companies are issuing securities in euros in record volumes – so-called ‘reverse yankee bonds’ – to take advantage of lower rates in Europe, often making an implicit bet that the euro will weaken further. Their foreign debt issuance has doubled in pace since 2013, reaching $93bn in the first half of this year.

Global banks based in London also appear to be borrowing huge sums in euros to fund activities around the world , pushing offshore euro liabilities to a record $2.8 trillion.
The ECB is in effect displacing the Fed. This may mean that the baton passes safely from one super-power bank to another, buying a little more time.
Mr Borio warns investors not to push their luck. “It is unrealistic and dangerous to expect that monetary policy can cure all the global economy’s ills,” he said.
Nor is there any easy way out of the debt-trap now encompassing much of the globe. “If I were you, I would not start from here,” he said

“Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide,” wrote James Burnham in his 1964 “Suicide of the West.”

Burnham predicted that the mindless magnanimity of liberals, who subordinate the interests of their own people and nations to utopian and altruistic impulses, would bring about an end to Western civilization.

Was he wrong? Consider what is happening in Europe.

Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia, small nations sensing they will be swamped by asylum seekers from the Muslim world, are trying to seal their borders and secure their homelands.

Their instinct for survival, their awareness of lifeboat ethics, is acute. Yet they are being condemned for trying to save themselves.

Meanwhile, the pope calls on Catholics everywhere to welcome the asylum seekers and Angela Merkel will be taking in 800,000 this year alone, though the grumbling has begun in Bavaria.

This is but the beginning of what is to come, if Europe does not pull up the drawbridge.

For the scores of thousands of Syrians in the Balkans, Hungary, Austria and Germany are only the first wave. Behind them in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan are 4 million refugees from the Syrian civil war. Seeing the success of the first wave, they are now on the move.

Behind them are 2 million Alawites and 2 million Christians who will be fleeing Syria when the Bashar Assad regime falls to ISIS and the al-Qaeda terrorists who already occupy half of that blood-soaked land.

Now the Iraqis, who live in a country the prospects for whose reunification and peace are receding, have begun to move. Also among the thousands pouring into Europe from Turkey are Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Afghans. When the Americans leave Afghanistan and the Taliban take their revenge, more Afghans will be fleeing west.

Africa has a billion people, a number that will double by 2050, and double again to 4 billion by 2100. Are those billions of Africans going to endure lives of poverty under ruthless, incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical regimes, if Europe’s door remains wide open?

What is coming is not difficult to predict.

Europe is going to run out of altruism long before it runs out of refugees. For as The New York Times reported Monday, there is no end in sight to the coming Third World and Islamic migrations to Europe.

Humanitarian groups, said the Times, claim “successive waves of migrants … are on the way, perhaps for months or even years, until the wars, poverty and other underlying causes of the dislocations have abated.”

But with terrorism expanding from Nigeria to the Maghreb to the Middle East, wars spreading, and tyranny pandemic in those regions, will not a peaceful, prosperous and free Europe always be a magnet?

If Europe does not seal its borders, what is to stop the Islamic world and Third World from coming and repopulating the continent with their own kind, as the shrinking native populations of Europe die out?

Will Old Europe even be recognizable by midcentury?

The inevitable reaction to what is happening has already begun.

European nations will divide with anti-immigrant parties like the National Front in France and UKIP in Britain gaining adherents until the major parties embrace restrictions on immigration or are swept aside.

Already there is a backlash in Germany and Austria to the tens of thousands invited in.

Eastern Europe, with shrinking populations of native-born, has shown little interest in admitting migrants.
Though attacked by his opposition, Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu will not be admitting Arab and Muslim asylum seekers. Having built a fence from Gaza to Eilat to keep Africans from crossing the Sinai, a wall to separate the West Bank from Israel, Bibi is now building a fence on the Jordanian border.

The Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas says he would welcome Palestinian asylum seekers. Both sides know that, in this struggle, demography may very well be destiny.

The Schengen Agreement that guarantees “open borders” among EU nations is also unlikely to survive this invasion. The old national borders of Europe will be re-established.

And as divisions deepen within and between countries over how many to accept, and when to shut the door, the EU may itself crack up over this most momentous and emotional of issues.

The scores of thousands of migrants bursting into Europe and the hundreds of thousands and millions coming after them are going to force Europeans to address an existential question.

Who are we? Are we unique and separate peoples of a particular race and tribe, history and faith, language and culture, identifiable to all the world and worth preserving at the price of our lives?

Are we Germans, Russians, Poles, Italians, Spanish and French first?

Or are we simply Europeans, people who live on the world’s smallest continent and share a belief in the equality of all peoples and cultures, and in secularism and social democracy?

Liberal Man almost alone excepted, every species of animal life reacts or recoils when another species intrudes upon its turf.

Its come to Jesus time for all those aristocratic, tolerant, morally superior, highly educated Europeans who loved the policy of open borders so much that they enacted it into law across the European Union i.e. the Schengen Agreement, which has forced them to confront such existential questions: who are we; what are we; and will we survive? Yes, they are morally superior people just as long as they are not forced to take these immigrants into their homes, or give up the perks which make them such morally superior people, willing to impose these onerous conditions on others, but not themselves. If this proves to be the issue that breaks up the EU, then so much the better.
———————-
The Schengen Agreement that guarantees “open borders” among EU nations is also unlikely to survive this invasion. The old national borders of Europe will be re-established.

And as divisions deepen within and between countries over how many to accept, and when to shut the door, the EU may itself crack up over this most momentous and emotional of issues.

The scores of thousands of migrants bursting into Europe and the hundreds of thousands and millions coming after them are going to force Europeans to address an existential question.

Who are we? Are we unique and separate peoples of a particular race and tribe, history and faith, language and culture, identifiable to all the world and worth preserving at the price of our lives?

Are we Germans, Russians, Poles, Italians, Spanish and French first?

Or are we simply Europeans, people who live on the world’s smallest continent and share a belief in the equality of all peoples and cultures, and in secularism and social democracy?

Liberal Man almost alone excepted, every species of animal life reacts or recoils when another species intrudes upon its turf.

H(Sander) added, “Now I know, my guess is that probably not everybody here is an admirer or voted for Barack Obama. But the point is, in 2008 this country took a huge step forward in voting for a candidate based on his ideas and not the color of his skin.”
—
All the senile fucker yaps about is symbols.

In so doing, he ignores competence and results.

If we evaluate Obama according to the latter criteria

Factors that produce freedom and prosperity as opposed to feel good crapola

Then it is fair to say the country took a giant leap alright

But the direction was BACKWARDS, not forwards.

Which is the hallmark of stupidity, as opposed to tolerance.

In fact, it is a form of intolerance which lies at the heart of every affirmative action program.